19 Comments
Mar 6Liked by Jim Ruland

Thanks for the recommendations and congrats on getting a copy of Repo Man. Love that movie/soundtrack. Look forward to reading "The Demo" in October. It will pair nicely with a Dodgers World Series win.

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Now you're talking!

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Repo Man didn't actually bomb at the box office. Just took a while to find its audience. My friend (then Apartment manager) Miguel Sandoval - Archie in the movie got me on the set a few times. Definitely not a studio production. A while back the Getty hosted a screening because they went through every poll they could find of the best movies made about L.A. Repo Man was the only flick to make every list. The priestly garb I'm wearing in my profile photo is from another cox film "Walker" from 1987, his last studio movie. Lou Mathews

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Mar 10·edited Mar 10Author

That's amazing! Do you recall which scenes you witnessed?

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The L.A. River scene with Los Rodriguez Brothers - Del Zamora and Eddie Velez - and the scene where Archie opens the trunk and gets incinerated. "Did Dukey Wukey hurt his little hand?" Whole lot of improv. Alex gave the actors a lot of leeway. Miguel uses "The Ride of the Valkyries" as his personal theme song throughout the movie but calls it the Apocalypse Now Song.

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Incredible. I met Del Zamora some years ago when I interviewed Alex Cox.

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I'm ashamed to say that I have actually never watched Repo Man, despite it being recommended to me dozens of times by people whose opinions I legitimately appreciate. Since the cat is outta the bag I will also state that I JUST watched Valley Girl last year, which was excellent. I will add it to the list!

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Mar 9·edited Mar 9Author

There is no comparison between the two films, but many, many contrasts!

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Thanks for getting the Repo Man OST on my radar earlier this week! I still need to find it.

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Mar 7·edited Mar 7Liked by Jim Ruland

Repo Man is one of my all-time all times. Seen is more than a dozen times. First time I saw it was at the little art house theaters in Santa Cruz — The Nickelodeon (RIP). Played there for months. One of the most quotable movies (I can tell you probably feel the same from a quick glance at the longer piece you wrote, which I’ll go back to later tonight). I did Miller’s cosmic unconsciousness monologue as my final speech in speech class at Santa Cruz High. Have had the cassette… twice. It’s where I discovered the Circle Jerks, I think (we all gotta duck…). Picked up the vinyl for the first time last summer… a banged up but working copy at SF Ameoba. Alex Cox! Marc Maron interviewed him about 10 yrs ago. You can find it in the archives if you listen to WTF! Thanks for the riff!

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Right on! I briefly interviewed Alex a long time ago. Also talked to Zander and Jennifer Balgobin, which was wild!

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Great news about a great OST. Repo Man is one of my all-time favorite movies.

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I can't get enough of it!

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'the demo' sounds great. any plans or thoughts on coming to canada, Jim?

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Thanks! Where in Canada? I was in Vancouver in 2022 and would love to go back!

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the city and city books & its alright ma records in hamilton.

and,

sellers and newell in toronto.

great stores. both on instagram. airports in both.

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Nice! These BR book events--or any event for a book that came out a while comes about when I'm already going to a place OR if I get invited somewhere.

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"The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish" has to be one of the greatest titles ever. Thanks for the heads up.

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From the dependably excellent Two Dollar Radio!

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